This came in from Tom Martin today -
I have just received word from one of our DOMs that J.B. (James Brown) who has worked at Bambi for many years in the dining room died unexpectedly yesterday. His family is going up to take care of arrangements for the body. That is all we know at this time. Please remember them in your prayers.
Tom
A Guide to
Sunday Morning Prayer
Welcome to Sunday Morning Prayer! This guide will help you know what to expect from these times of prayer. We hope you will find our prayer together encouraging as we lift up the needs of ourselves and others in prayer, and hear our brothers and sisters in Christ pray with us in humble dependence on God.
What we will be doing
During our time together, we will focusing our prayer along Kingdom Priorities. This kind of prayer has three basic traits: a) a request for grace to confess sins and humble ourselves; b) a compassion and zeal for the flourishing of the church; c) a yearning to know God, to see his face, to see his glory.
This kind of prayer comes from allowing God’s word to inform our prayers. Many times in our prayers, we allow the cares of the world to push out God’s cares for the world. God says we should take even our most basic needs before him in prayer, but only after we have sought his kingdom and his will for the world (cf. Matt 6:9-13).
What this will look like
Reading. In order to have our prayer shaped by God’s Word, we will begin with God’s Word. Specifically, we will take a few weeks and reading through books, or large portions of Scripture.
Meditating. After reading the Scripture, we will spend some time thinking about and discussing the basic meaning and implications of what we read. This means essentially asking two questions – 1) what does it tell us about God, and 2) what does it tell us about ourselves.
Praying. After taking the time to allow our thoughts to be informed by God through his Word, we will apply those thoughts to our prayers. Thinking about specific groups and activities in the church, we will pray according to God’s Word.
‘BOILER ROOM’ PRAYER
AN INTRODUCTION TO
SUNDAY MORNING’S NEW
PRAYER GATHERING
Why Is It Called, ‘Boiler Room’ Prayer?
Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892) is known as the ‘prince of preachers.’ He was a Baptist minister in
England who saw enormous blessings from God upon his ministry. It is not an exaggeration to say that thousands came to Christ through his preaching. Some of services drew as many as 10,000 people at a time!
But Spurgeon never took credit for the success of his ministry. Instead, he always pointed to the hundreds of people who came before services and prayed for God’s blessing. He said any success he had come from God in answer to their prayers. Spurgeon was often fond of calling these prayer gatherings the church’s “boiler room.”
In Spurgeon’s time, steam was the power source of the day. Boiler rooms were the powerhouses, the driving forces of everything from vast machines in factories to household heating systems. Boiler rooms, however, were not pleasant places to visit. They were functional, dirty, and hot; often tucked away in the basement. Likewise, Spurgeon saw the prayers of his people as the spiritual power behind his preaching and ministry. This is why he told his fellow pastors, “Brethren, we shall never see much change for the better in our churches in general till the prayer meeting occupies a higher place in the esteem of Christians.”
Although, our time together will probably not be called, ‘Boiler Room Prayer,’ we desire to have our ministries fueled by prayer much as Spurgeon’s were. Those interested in participating in such ‘boiler room’ prayer gather at 9:30a. Together they pray for everything going on that week – from the sermon and the pastor, to those in the service and nursery.
Will Someone Ask Me to Pray?
Some of you will not have been to a prayer meeting in a long time. Others will be uncomfortable praying in public. Regardless of your previous experience, we want you to experience ‘boiler room’ prayer.
While everyone will be invited to pray, no one will be forced to pray, or singled out to pray. All of the prayers offered will be offered voluntarily. Again, we would hope that everyone would pray! But if you do not feel comfortable, you will be free to pray along silently.
What Will the Service Look Like?
If you have been to any of the House of Prayer services, you will find the ‘boiler room’ services different. In fact, they will not be services so much as prayer ‘gatherings.’ By that, we mean that there will be more informality to the prayer time along with specific priorities:
Prayer with Kingdom Priorities
Jack Miller talks about kingdom prayer having three basic traits: a) a request for grace to confess sins and humble ourselves; b) a compassion and zeal for the flourishing of the church; c) a yearning to know God, to see his face, to see his glory. It is most interesting to study Biblical prayer for revival, such as in Acts 4 or Exodus 33 or Nehemiah 1, where these three elements are easy to see.
Prayer with a Harvest Focus
In Matt 9:37-38, Jesus said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Jesus presents a ‘harvest focus’ that should be present in our prayer lives. Specifically, this means praying for the salvation of others. That includes both asking that the lord will break-up the hard, stony hearts of lost people, giving them spiritual life to see and believe the gospel in faith. And it also means praying for those who would sow the seed of the gospel – for Christians to be bold with their faith and make the most of every opportunity to share Christ.
Prayer that Seeks the Glory of God
This includes asking: 1) for a personal experience of the glory/presence of God (“that I may know you” — Exod 33:13); 2) for the people’s experience of the glory of God (33:15); and 3) that the world might see the glory of God through his people (33:16).
Moses asks that God’s presence would be obvious to all: “What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?” This is a prayer that the world be awed and amazed by a show of God’s power and radiance in the church, that it would become truly the new humanity that is a sign of the future kingdom.
